Interview: Laura Moore, author of ‘Making Waves’

Interview: Laura Moore, author of ‘Making Waves’

Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Laura! Please tell us a bit about your new release, Making Waves.

Laura: Hi! Thanks so much for having me here today at HEA. It’s always a pleasure. Making Waves is about Dakota Hale, who runs a successful personal concierge business in the Hamptons. Years of handling her outrageously demanding mother and family have made Dakota more than able to accommodate the needs of wealthy elite. But all her organizational skills as well as her family loyalties are put to the test when she is hired by Max Carr, a charismatic financier, to renovate his oceanfront mansion — which until Max’s purchase belonged to the Hales. Dakota manages to resist the attraction she feels for Max, but a fraught evening provides a glimpse of the secret pain behind his polished exterior, and she succumbs with consequences she never anticipated. It’s a book about withstanding the slings of society gossip and overcoming the devastation of family secrets and learning to trust the heart and draw strength from what one finds there.

Joyce: What inspires your book ideas?

Laura: I get my ideas from a variety of sources: a snippet of overheard conversation; an article read in a newspaper; a face glimpsed on the bus, a plotline left unpursued in a movie, they’re the sparks that get my imagination off and running. With luck they’ll lead to the beginnings of a new story.

Joyce: What do you do when you get stuck?

Laura: I don’t plot my books out nearly as well as I should — I’m what’s called a “pantser” — because I like discovering surprises about my characters and the storyline along the way. But this means there are definitely moments when I get stuck or lost moving from point to point. My default remedy is to go and do something else, like gardening, cooking, washing dishes, or even folding laundry. Basically, any rhythmic activity that isn’t too strenuous and that allows my mind to work through the problem without the stress of staring at a blank screen helps. As a bonus, at least some of household chores are done!

Joyce: Who are three romance authors who turn you into a fangirl?

Laura: Only three? There are so many authors that I worship and get tongue-tied with, but off the top of my head I recall embarrassing myself thoroughly with Nora Roberts, Linda Howard and Jude Deveraux.

Joyce: What distracts you the most when you’re trying to write?

Laura: The Internet. I can handle screaming kids, road crews tearing up the street, family members wandering in and out with questions, and still keep writing. But the lure of checking my e-mail, seeing what’s happened in the news, reading my friends’ latest updates on FB or buying that pair of shoes on my favorite shopping site (because of course I desperately need another pair of shoes) can make me lose hours of precious writing time.

Joyce: Do you have any particular rituals that help you get into the writing frame of mind?

Laura: I fix a big pot of coffee and I open up my music library for the playlist I’ve created for the book I’m writing. For me, there’s something about the beat of the music that really helps me write. As does vast amounts of caffeine!

Joyce: Is there a TV show that you’ve recently binge-watched?

Laura: Poldark. I love Demelza and only wish she would give Ross a swift kick in the seat of the pants when he’s being particularly dense. On the other hand, there are few things I enjoy more than watching Ross gallop along the Cornwall coast and then rein his horse to a halt so that he can stare broodingly out to sea. If Demelza straightened him out, there might be fewer of Ross’ glorious rides.

Joyce: What’s your ideal scenery while you’re writing?

Laura: The beach. I love watching the roll of the waves, the way the light plays on the water and staring at the endless horizon. Thoughts flow more freely for me when I’m by the sea. In this I’m very much like my heroine Dakota Hale, who finds her emotional balance surfing the waves off of Montauk, the easternmost point of Long Island, New York.

Joyce: What do you do in your spare time?

Laura: I’ve recently gotten back into horseback riding. I used to compete in hunter/equitation classes but am now focusing on dressage. It’s exciting to be learning new ways to ask a horse to move and it’s such a thrill whenever I get it right.

Joyce: What are three romance novels on your to-be-read list?

Laura: Kristan Higgins’ On Second Thought, Eloisa James’ Seven Minutes in Heaven and Thea Harrison’s Moonshadow … three more authors I love who turn me into a babbling fangirl.

Joyce: What are you working on now?

Laura: I’m currently writing the second book in the Beach Lane series. As teenagers, Lauren Payne and Tom Hunter shared their first kiss on the beach one summer night, but then circumstances drove the young lovers apart. Twelve years later, Tom, now a Hollywood movie star, returns to the Hamptons with a request from Lauren. Widowed and raising two young daughters, Lauren is reluctant to have the charismatic and larger-than-life movie star back in her carefully organized and safe world. While Tom may be Mr. Wonderful to movie fans around the world, to Lauren he is very much Mr. Wrong. I’m having a lot of fun with this story!

Joyce: Thanks, Laura!

About Making Waves:

As the responsible daughter of an irresponsible socialite, Dakota Hale has plenty of practice catering to the whims of the rich and spoiled—and she’s turned that experience into a thriving concierge business serving the needs of the Hamptons’ wealthy elite. But anytime the drama on land gets too outrageous, Dakota finds calm surfing the Atlantic waves. But when sexy mogul Max Carr hires her, it rocks her balance in a big way.

Max works hard, but he’s never had to put any effort into winning over a woman—until now. With her stunning beauty and keen intelligence, Dakota is worth the effort. But it’s plain she has no interest in a casual fling, and that’s all Max, with his grief-stricken heart, can offer. But one fraught night changes everything, with consequences neither Dakota nor Max anticipated. Now they must navigate the rough waters of society gossip and devastating secrets that threaten their fragile relationship. If they can trust in the strength of their growing feelings, they’ll find that the dreams they’ve been chasing are close enough to embrace … together.